Patent GB-191218946-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to a Treatment of Starch containing Material, and Products Obtained therefrom.
Inventor: ANDERSON ALEXANDER PIERCE
IPC: C08B30/12
Filed: 1912-08-19
Granted: 1913-08-19
Abstract: 18,946. Anderson, A. P. Aug. 19. Damping or steaming grain; processes of treating grain; steaming or heating flour and meal; preparing flour and meal from special materials.-Starch and starch-containing materials, such as products of cereals, including wheat, oats, rice, corn, or buckwheat, legumes, such as beans, peas, or lentils, bananas, and other fruits, potatoes, tapioca, sago, cassava, &c. in either powdered, lump, or plastic form are subjected to a rolling or tumbling motion under the action of heat with or without a binding- agent until nodules or " pebbles " are formed. The material is placed in a drum 2, Fig. 1, pivoted on a spindle 4 between the side members 3 of a carrier having wheels which run between guide-rails mounted on gear-rings 8 in an oven heated by gas &c. The gear-rings and drum are rotated by means of a shaft 10<a>, The lid 18 of the drum presses against a roller 19 and has soft-metal packing to form a tight joint, the drum being preferably made of bronze having a higher coefficient of expansion than the side members 3. A steam-pipe 20 leads through the stuffing-box 12<a> and pipe 12<1> to a flat perforated pipe 13, Fig. 4, within the drum, and is provided with cocks and a by-pass. The flour &c., containing from 15 to 25 per cent of water, is heated and agitated in the drum until the starch is partly gelatinized and the particles adhere and form rounded lumps. The pressure in the drum is then gradually released by opening the taps 15<e>, 15<d>, 15<a>, and the drum may be partly exhausted during rotation to dry the material. If the valves are left open during the pebbling process, material containing more moisture may be employed. The product contains starch in a semi-gelatinized condition surrounded by a hard shell, or, if the temperature is higher and the treatment longer, the lumps are horny throughout and have a polished surface. If the material is to be used in plastic form, the flour &c. is mixed with water in a device 24, Fig. 6, the dough falling into a vessel 27 and being pressed out by blades 30 through apertures in the base 28, beneath which revolves a knife 31 so adjusted as to sever pieces of dough about equal in length to their diameter. They are mixed with dry flour from a shoot 33 and fed by a conveyer 34 to a tumbling drum 35, at the lower end of which are grading-sieves 38, 39, the small pieces being discharged by a shoot 40 and the large pieces by a shoot 41 to a bin to be returned to the mixer, and the pieces of the required size passing to a bin 42 from which they enter a pebbling- drum 43, which may be a jacketed drum of the kind described in Specification 18,950/12. Other plastic or pulpy materials, such as potatoes (cooked or not), bananas, &c., may be similarly treated. The pebbles produced may be "puffed" by the process described in Specification 18,949/12. If a binder, such as gelatinized starch, is added in the water used to moisten the flour &c., it is not necessary to heat to a gelatinizing temperature.